Category Archives: US crime

Former Louisiana police deputy given 100-year sentence for sex crimes

Posted on by

Dennis Perkins, 47, to spend rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to a slew of crimes including child sexual abuse

A former Louisiana sheriff’s deputy has been given a 100-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to a spree of sexual abuse crimes, including child abuse.

Dennis Perkins, 47, will spend the rest of his life in prison after he pleaded guilty to a slew of offenses ranging from rape, child abuse images and video voyeurism to contaminating food with a bodily substance, authorities said. He has no possibility of being released on parole after state prosecutors struck a deal with him to plead guilty to avoid a trial that would have required young victims to testify about traumas they had endured, Louisiana’s Advocate newspaper reported.

Continue reading...

Florida: alleged burglars arrested after calling 911 for help moving belongings

Posted on by

Two arrested in Kissimmee after calling for assistance moving items from burglarized house and a ride to the airport

Sheriffs in Florida arrested two purportedly bumbling burglars after one allegedly called 911, intending to ask police for help moving belongings from a house they broke into, authorities said.

The chain of events started to unfold around 1am on Saturday in Kissimmee, about 20 miles from Orlando. A Dollar General discount store was burglarized and “multiple items stolen” the Polk county sheriff’s office said, documenting the alleged incident in an arrest affidavit and a Facebook post.

Continue reading...

Ex-Colorado funeral home owner gets 20 year sentence for selling body parts

Posted on by

Megan Hess and her mother Shirley Koch defrauded distraught families and dismembered bodies for illegal sale

A former Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 corpses and selling body parts without permission.

Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law.

Continue reading...

Suspect in University of Idaho killings to appear in court in Pennsylvania

Posted on by

Bryan Kohberger is not expected to resist extradition to Idaho to face murder charges over stabbings of four students

Bryan Kohberger, the criminal psychology graduate accused of murder over the deaths of four University of Idaho students, will appear in a Pennsylvania court on Tuesday ahead of his extradition to Idaho.

Kohberger’s public defender, Jason LaBar, has said his client will not contest his extradition because he is “eager to be exonerated”. Labar has also said that his client “should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise – not tried in the court of public opinion”.

Continue reading...

Machete-wielding man attacks New York City police at New Year’s Eve event

Posted on by

Authorities are investigating whether the 19-year-old suspect was inspired by radical Islamist extremism, an official said

A man wielding a machete attacked three police officers at the New Year’s Eve celebration in New York City, authorities said, striking two of them in the head before an officer shot the man in the shoulder.

Authorities were investigating whether the man was inspired by radical Islamist extremism, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter.

Continue reading...

Idaho student killings: suspect’s family vow to ‘promote his presumption of innocence’

Posted on by

In their first public statement, the family of Bryan Christopher Kohberger offered condolences to the victims’ families


The family of Bryan Christopher Kohberger, the suspect arrested in the brutal slayings of four University of Idaho students, have said they are cooperating with law enforcement to “promote his presumption of innocence rather than judge unknown facts and make erroneous assumptions”.

Michael and Marianne Kohberger, and his sister, Amanda, spoke out on Sunday in their first public statement since the 28-year-old criminal psychology graduate was arrested early on Friday. They said they wanted to “let the legal process unfold and as a family we will love and support our son and brother”.

Continue reading...

Man charged in Idaho student murders to waive Pennsylvania court appearance

Posted on by

Suspect, 28, accused of killing four students will waive his extradition hearing and will be brought to Idaho to face charges

Bryan Kohberger, the 28-year-old criminology graduate student charged with first-degree murder in the macabre killings of four University of Idaho students, plans to waive an appearance in court in Pennsylvania on Tuesday where Idaho prosecutors will request his extradition, his lawyer indicated on Saturday.

Pennsylvania’s Monroe county chief public defender, Jason LaBar, said on Saturday that he plans to tell a judge there on Tuesday that Kohberger will waive his extradition hearing there so that he can be quickly brought to Idaho to face the charges and is eager to be exonerated.

Continue reading...

Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler sued for 1970s sexual battery and assault of minor

Posted on by

Suit alleges ‘various acts of criminal sexual conduct’ were committed against teenager by singer over three-year period

A woman who says she had a sexual relationship with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler when she was 16 is suing him in California, under a state law that has temporarily extended the statute of limitations for adults to take legal action on sexual abuse they suffered as children.

Julia Holcomb Misley, who has spoken out publicly for years about Tyler’s treatment of her as a teenager, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Tuesday alleging sexual battery, sexual assault and intentional infliction of distress during a three-year period in the 1970s.

Continue reading...

Man arrested and charged with murder over Idaho student murders

Posted on by

Suspect, 28, reportedly apprehended in Monroe county in relation to stabbing deaths of four young people at University of Idaho

A criminology graduate student has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the killings of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in their beds more than a month ago, police said on Friday.

Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested early on Friday morning by the Pennsylvania state police at a home in Chestnuthill Township, authorities said. The Latah county prosecutor, Bill Thompson, said investigators believe Kohberger broke into the students’ home “with the intent to commit murder”.

Continue reading...

Louisiana store worker charged in water dousing attack during US cold snap

Posted on by

Clerk allegedly drenched unhoused woman sitting in parking lot of store where Alton Sterling was killed by police in 2016

A worker at a convenience store in Louisiana’s capital has lost her job and is facing criminal charges after she dumped water on an unhoused woman who was outside the shop during the Christmas weekend’s freezing weather.

The dismissed employee – identified by authorities as 33-year-old Kasey Weber – purportedly posted video of the 26 December encounter on social media herself before police arrested her in a case containing one of the most extreme examples of alleged mistreatment against a neighbor at a time when community leaders called on Americans to band together to survive the dangerous Arctic weather that gripped much of the US recently.

Continue reading...

US Virgin Islands suing JPMorgan Chase over Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking

Posted on by

Documents accuse bank of ‘turning a blind eye’ to illegal activities committed by their client

The US Virgin Islands is suing the bank JPMorgan Chase, accusing it of helping Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of women and girls, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York.

The documents submitted by the US Virgin Islands’ (USVI) attorney general accuse JPMorgan of “turning a blind eye” to illegal activities committed by Epstein – a client of the bank – on his private island, Little St James, which is part of the Caribbean US territory.

Continue reading...

Suspected Stockton serial killer charged with four additional deaths

Posted on by

Wesley Brownlee, arrested in October while allegedly ‘out hunting’ for another victim, now faces seven charges for slayings

A man suspected in northern California serial killings has been charged in four additional slayings this week, bringing the total to seven deaths since April 2021, authorities said.

The shootings terrorized the Central Valley city of Stockton earlier this year as police searched for a man clad in black who appeared to be “on a mission” as he hunted victims for ambush-style shootings. He was also tied to violence in Alameda county.

Continue reading...

Suspect arrested over fatal knife attacks in New York

Posted on by

Roland Codrington, 35, accused of murdering two men three days apart in apparently random encounters

A suspect was named on Monday in two seemingly isolated and random outdoor murders in New York City at the height of the holiday season.

Roland Codrington, 35, is accused of murdering two men who were slashed to death in night-time killings three days apart.

Continue reading...

Professor sues TikTok accuser for linking her to Idaho students’ murders

Posted on by

Rebecca Scofield said a TikTok user spread baseless and false claims linking her to the November slayings of four students

A University of Idaho professor has filed a defamation lawsuit against a self-proclaimed psychic on TikTok after the tarot card reader accused her of killing four of the school’s students, whose murders shocked the US last month.

The federal lawsuit filed by the university’s history department chair Rebecca Scofield on Wednesday alleges that TikTok user Ashley Guillard spread baseless claims which falsely linked the professor to the 13 November slayings of Xana Kernodle, 20; Ethan Chapin, 20; Maddie Mogen, 21; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, in Moscow, Idaho.

Continue reading...

Two dead at Jehovah’s Witnesses center in Colorado

Posted on by

Police say the shooting involved a married couple – an unidentified man fatally shot a woman before killing himself

Police in Thornton, Colorado, say they found two adults dead after investigating a suspected murder-suicide at a Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall on Christmas morning.

Officers in the suburb north of Denver tweeted at 10.30am Sunday that they were investigating a homicide at the gathering place but that “there [was] no active threat”.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump: how will prosecutors pursue the House panel’s charges?

Posted on by

The justice department may find it difficult to obtain a conviction for each charge referred by the January 6 committee

The House January 6 select committee outlined criminal referrals against Donald Trump for charges that experts believe the justice department could definitely pursue should it move forward with prosecuting the former US president over his efforts to stop the congressional certification of the 2020 election.

The panel voted at its final public session on Monday to recommend prosecution for Trump for four possible crimes: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to make a false statement and incitement of insurrection.

Continue reading...

Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles trial

Posted on by

The downfall of the former movie magnate played out over a six-week trial that included testimony from Jennifer Siebel Newsom

A Los Angeles jury has found Harvey Weinstein guilty of rape and sexual assault, five years after dozens of women spoke out against the Hollywood producer and galvanized the #MeToo movement.

After more than nine days of deliberation, the jury convicted Weinstein of three counts of rape and sexual assault against one woman, a European model and actor who testified anonymously as “Jane Doe 1”, while remaining divided on three other charges of rape and sexual assault by two other accusers, including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California’s governor. Weinstein was also acquitted of a sexual battery allegation made by a fourth woman.

Continue reading...

Brooklyn pastor who was robbed on live stream in July charged with fraud

Posted on by

Lamor Miller-Whitehead, the ‘bling-bling bishop’ with hip-hop connections, is accused of swindling his own parishioners

The Brooklyn pastor who made headlines when he was robbed of an estimated $1m in jewelry during a church service being broadcast online in July was arrested on federal fraud charges on Monday after he allegedly swindled parishioners.

US prosecutors in Manhattan charged that Lamor Miller-Whitehead, 44, solicited money from victims – including $90,000 from a retired parishioner – using threats or false promises of enriching them, but then pocketed the money for himself and sometimes spent it on luxury goods.

Continue reading...

Highland Park shooting suspect’s father faces charges for sponsoring son’s gun license

Posted on by

Robert Crimo Jr was charged with seven felony counts of reckless conduct for helping his son obtain a license in December 2019

The father of the 19-year-old accused of killing seven people at a July 4 parade near Chicago has been charged with seven felony counts of reckless conduct, as a result of sponsoring his son’s application for a gun license in 2019.

The charges against Robert Crimo Jr were announced on Friday, and the Lake county state’s attorney, Eric Rinehart, said he surrendered to police and will have a bond hearing Saturday.

Continue reading...

Florida pastor and son arrested in alleged $8m Covid relief fraud scheme

Posted on by

Christian missionaries who ran a faith-based organization allegedly used federal funds to buy a multi-million-dollar home

A Florida pastor and his son have been arrested for allegedly fraudulently obtaining more than $8m in federal Covid relief funds.

Evan and Joshua Edwards of Orlando were arrested on Wednesday, alleged to have used such funds for luxury expenses including a multi-million-dollar house near Walt Disney World.

Continue reading...